at the end of the two-decade road
is a house tin roof stone fence
windows still wanting for glass
and
yes the house
is a house and
yes the storm clouds
are clouds and
yes the cradled child
is a child miracle the haze
of his hair miracle the scent
of his skin two decades ago his mother
hid in the swamps for weeks
orphan teeth loosening
budding breasts shriveled against
hunger’s
ribs two decades ago she
alone
carried the future her great-
grandmother’s voice her twin-
brothers’ smiles
through bloodied days through
panic nights there is nothing
she says nothing
that can touch me now her hand
on the curve of the baby’s
her baby’s
back and I take it
in the miracle hair the rutted
road with the mud red drive
the roof in the rainstorm
such bright wings
Laura Apol is a professor at Michigan State University. Her poetry appears in numerous anthologies and literary journals, and she is recognized through a number of poetry prizes. She is the author of four full-length collections: Falling into Grace; Crossing the Ladder of Sun; Requiem, Rwanda (drawn from her decade-long work using writing to facilitate healing among survivors of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi); and Nothing but the Blood. She is a two-time winner of the Oklahoma Book Award and a finalist for the Independent Publishers Award for poetry. She currently serves as the poet laureate of the Lansing area in mid-Michigan